Rod Morris Poems

Way back in the nineteen forties, when I was just a lad,
The thought of spades and digging, was something rather bad.
Then the fifties rolled around, nothing seemed to change.
Planting peas and broccoli was not within my range.
...

From the ages five to fourteen I toiled to make the grade.
My parents said forget it leave school and learn a trade.
So on the day that I turned fifteen, I started my first job.
As a telegram delivery boy, I earned weekly thirty bob.
...

There is no doubt when you step out, upon life's curved and hilly road.
You need someone there with whom you share, each problem, half the load.
It can be hard when by oneself, to push onto the end.
But you will find the burdens light, when travelling with a friend.
...

Money is a virus, its the cause of so much strife.
In our search to have and hold it, perhaps we lose our love of life.
From when first we can remember, we are taught to seek out wealth.
In our quest to attain riches, the cost may be our health.
...

When you're down upon the West Coast, where the surf comes rolling in,
You'll know you've met a Coaster, when you catch that cheeky grin.
A face that's wrinkled by the sun, that's weathered by the storm.
Those friendly eyes that look at you, and make you feel so warm.
...

When the sun sinks low there's an afterglow, from which silhouettes stand clear.
Then with moonrise we turn our eyes to watch the stars appear.
For with the setting of the sun, we know the dewfall has begun.
Ease your mind and have no fear, the time to dream is drawing near.
...

Can you remember when just a child,
Sometimes in bush you'd play?
So lost within your fantasies,
You could not find your way.
...

In nineteen thirty-nine when I was only four,
My father joined the army; he went off too fight a war.

I was too young to understand why people had to die;
...

Have you ever sat upon the sand and listened to the sea?
Perhaps you wondered to yourself, how did this come to be.

Have you seen the sun, kiss low-down clouds, they blush impulsively.
Then on it climbs to spread its light, for all the world to see.
...

We met upon the dance floor; we were only twenty-four.
Both knew in that first instant this was it forever more.
Warm eyes, warm smiles, a quickening of the heart,
Knowing without speaking this was just the very start.
...